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Talia
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According to my uncles, this was the fourth crime scene they were seeing today. My mom was apparently keeping them busy with their work. I understood that it was important, but I was worried that they were going to start feeling tired soon. I had actually been up longer than any of them, since I had not slept the night that I was pulled over to Wales. In Colorado time, I had been up for a day and a half already.
We traveled by door from Wales to England. We were in the southern part of the country now, in a little village called Wolfhamm. I don't think that the people that named it were all that good at hiding what they were. That or the humans had suspicions about what lurked in the vicinity.
I knew that my mom had the Alpha warned that we were coming, and that he texted her a picture of his office. That was needed so that Mom could visualize where the door needed to appear. And it had apparently just been taken with the Alpha's family in there with him. It was small, cute and quaint, not like the things that I was used to seeing.
The door appeared, we walked through it like we had before, and almost as soon as we started the trip from one country to another, there were screams of fear.
.....
“AHH! Mummy, what is going on?!”
“What is this?”
“Why is there a door?!”
“Bloody hell, that is cool.”
“What is the meaning of this?”
There were children and adults that were talking, female and male voices as well. And four out of those five voices were scared to death. Only one of them, a guy's voice, sounded like they were excited.
The first through the door was my dad. He was the king and capable of protecting his queen. After him was my mom and then me. I think that the only reason we were going through in this order was because we were in a hurry. We needed to make sure that we got this all done as soon as possible.
“Are you the Alpha?” My dad's voice was full of authority and power. Sometimes he was pretty cool, though I couldn't tell him that. I was a teenage girl. He couldn't know that I thought he was cool in any way or he would be a total embarrassment for me.
“Yes, I am Alpha Nigel! Who in the hell are you? What are you doing in my office? What is the meaning of this?” The Alpha was on his feet glaring at us all as we continued to come through the door into his office. I was just thankful that it was big enough to accommodate us, and our luggage.
“I am Reece Gray, Alpha King. You were told that we were coming, were you not?” That wiped the look off of Nigel's face. He was not prepared for that.
“I thought you were coming by car. I did not think that you were coming straight into my office through a blasted door. What is going on here?”
“We do not have much daylight left to work by. We need to see the most recent crime scene. If we are going to put an end to these murders, we need to be quick about it all.” Mom stepped forward then. “I am Trinity Gray, I take it that you know what that means. We are here to work as quickly as we can. Take us to the scene immediately.” I didn't miss the slight edge to my mom's voice, or the fact that it rippled with power. That was a command. She needed to bring these people into line right away.
I looked at the family that was around me. There was Nigel the alpha, tall and looking like he was in his mid thirties or so with auburn hair and bright hazel eyes. Next was a woman with red hair and green eyes and a face that was probably angelic most of the time but was filled with terror at the moment. There was a little boy that I would say was no older than six. A girl about as old as my younger siblings. And a guy about my age. All of the kids were clearly related. They had their mom's green eyes and their dad's auburn hair. It was more brown than red, but you could still see the color hiding in it. The younger two kids could be described as cute or adorable. That was what I usually associated with little kids. The guy that was my age could only be described as hot.
I instantly wanted to talk to him and get to know him, but I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to bring myself to talk to him. I would be too shy, and he would most likely be intimidated by Lex and Rudy. And it's not like I was going to be here for very long as it was. We were leaving tonight.
While I was staring at the people around me, particularly that really good looking boy, my mom and dad were talking to the Alpha. I wasn't paying attention to the conversation that they were having, but I noticed when the Alpha of this village called out in a stern voice.
“Arthur, take them to the river.” At those words the boy that I had been trying to look at without being overly obvious, jumped and spun to face his father.
“Yes, Da. I will take them now.”
As a group, we left the Alpha's office. The Alpha was staying here with Rudy, Uncle Shane, Uncle David, Uncle Gabriel and Telyn. Me, Mom, Dad, Uncle Shawn, Uncle Dietrich and Lex were going with Arthur to the scene of the murder. We were splitting into two groups so that we could investigate that much faster. Those staying behind were going to be canvassing the small village, gathering as much information as they could. The rest of us were heading to the crime scene and then a local freezer that the body was being held in.
This village here turned out to be almost nothing but wolves. They didn't report the murder to the police, but they had heard about what was going on and passed the information along to the castle. And that's where my Aunt Rawlynne and Uncle Jackson had gotten the message and passed it along to us.
The body was discovered near the river. There was a large pool of blood laying between two large trees that shaded the riverbank. The blood hadn't been spread around to make a rune like my mom had said happened at more than one previous murder. However, using our magical eyes, my mom and I were able to find the words hidden in the pebbles near the water. They had written them in one long line of words rather than like it was a poem or something like that. I have to admit that seeing those words was quite scary. The way they made me feel just turned my stomach.
“Hi.” Arthur sidled up to me after I was done looking around the crime scene. I didn't know what might be important and what wouldn't be, so I was taking this time to watch the others. Or rather, I had been.
“Uh..uhm.. h..hi.” I stuttered a little when the boy came to talk to me.
“You're cute.” He was grinning and looking confident. “How old are you? I'm sixteen. My name is Arthur by the way, but I am sure you know that.” His grin was handsome and made me blush.
“M..my name is Talia and I..I'm fifteen.” I had always focused on school so much that I never had a boyfriend before. I was so hyper focused on my future that I was just trying to rush to it as soon as possible. Now, though, I wish that I would have had a little more experience with boys. I didn't know how to respond to this boy that was smiling at me.
“Cool.” He was standing so close that his shoulder bumped into mine. That was a mistake. Lex was letting him talk to me, but I guess touching was out of the question.
“Step back.” Lex's deep voice boomed out right next to the boy.
“Relax mate. I'm just talking to the girl. I'm not hurting anyone.” Arthur grinned like there was nothing at all going on.
“I said step back.”
“Alexio? Is there a problem?” Dad asked as he came stomping over to where I was. “What is happening over here?”
Oh no. This was going to be bad. My dad was going to get involved and that meant that there was going to be someone yelling. Most likely my dad. And that would end up with Arthur crying.
“This 'boy',” Lex spat the word out like it was an insult, “bumped into Talia. He needs to step back before I move him back.”
“Is this true?” Dad looked very intently at how close the two of us were standing. “You bumped into my daughter?”
“Y..y..y..yo..your d..d..dau..dau..daughter?!” Arthur looked like he might have just swallowed his tongue. I don't know how he hadn't figured it out yet. I mean, I looked just like my mom.
“Yes. She is my daughter. This is Princess Talia. What do you think that you are doing?” Dad's voice was getting louder and louder. I could hear the anger filling it with each syllable.
“I..I'm s..so, so, so s..so..sorry, King Reece. I didn't mean anything by it. Sh..sh..she is a lovely girl. I..I..I just wanted to t..t..t..talk to her.” With eyes that were large and filled with fear, Arthur ran away from us as fast as possible. He moved to the road and stood tall and straight next to a fence.
“And that is why I never talk to boys.” I sighed, feeling just a little sorry for myself as well as Arthur.”
“He is not worthy of you, Talia.” Lex said that before slipping into silence. He was acting like that ended the whole thing. Since my dad had gone back to work, I guess that it did, in his mind at least.
After the crime scene, we were taken to the freezer that held the body. The wounds were just as bad as the last one. Only this time, there had not been an autopsy yet. That was good. This man was not going to suffer like the others.
I removed his soul and questioned him as only I could. His name was Larry and he was only twenty years old.
The investigation yielded no further clues. Nothing at all was different than what was found at the other scenes days and weeks later. And no one had seen anything either. There was no reason for us to wait here any longer than needed.
We left, without me saying goodbye to Arthur, no need to scar him further. After England we took a quick trip to Ireland and Scotland. We looked for what we could at the scenes, but the main reason that we went there was so that I could free the souls from their bodies before the autopsies. If I could save some people from that fate then I would.
These people, thirty year old Bree and Forty-two year old Bill, had told me nearly identical stories as the other three souls that I had freed from their bodies. That was five testimonies that I had heard from dead people, and the stories were the same every time. Just a few details were different each time. Even though I knew for a fact that there was more than one killer, the stories were so similar. Actually, Bill and Llewellyn had been killed by the same person. And Bree and Niclas had been killed by the same person. But this made three killers with nearly identical patterns. I may not be a cop, but even to me that seemed strange.
In truth, this was not just scary, it was also confusing.
